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Phoebe Judge: This episode contains a description
of a very violent sexual assault and is not
00:00:05
appropriate for everyone. Please use discretion. Carl Anderson: I'm Carl Anderson, Deputy Chief,
Anderson County Sheriff's Office.
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I'm over at the Criminal Investigation Bureau. Phoebe Judge: Carl Anderson began his career
with the Anderson County Sheriff's office
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in Anderson, South Carolina, 46 years ago. He was the county's first African-American
officer.
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We met with him in his office at the Sheriff's
Department in a building that's named after
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him, and sits on a road that's also named
after him, Carl Anderson Way. What do you think, after doing this for as
long as you've been doing it, what's made
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you a good detective? Carl Anderson: Well, number one, I'm not a
big talker. I'm a listener, observer.
00:00:56
I observe everything and I listen and, not
patting myself on the back, but I think I'm
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pretty good at what I
do. I love it, and you have to love it. I'd rather work a good homicide than eat when
I was hungry.
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Phoebe Judge: Really? Carl Anderson: Oh, no doubt about it. No doubt. Phoebe Judge: We went to Anderson to talk
to him about a sexual assault that took place
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in a Days Inn Motel in 1983. This is a disturbing story, so much so, that
the people involved remember it remarkably
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well, more than 30 years later. Carl Anderson was asleep at home when he got
the phone call just after 2 a.m.
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He got dressed and drove to the motel, where
he found 23 year old Elizabeth Daniel.
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Carl Anderson: It's amazing. It's just a miracle that she survived because
the injuries are horrible, horrible.
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Phoebe Judge: She'd been raped by three men. She knew one of them, Roscoe Brown, very well.
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They'd had a child together, although Brown
was married to someone else. When she went to the motel that night, she
thought she was meeting only him.
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Carl Anderson: And he wanted to break it off. And I think maybe she was asking for child
support.
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So, I think he did this to discredit her so
that she was a person that would just go out
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with anybody. And he didn't intend for it to go that far,
but everybody got drunk.
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And then the other boys, they just went berserk. Phoebe Judge: In what you want to, can you
just talk a little bit about what they did
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to her? Carl Anderson: Well, they forced her, they
had sex with her. Then they had a half a gallon of whiskey and,
I can't remember what kind it was, but they
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had a half a gallon bottle. And after they finish raping her, then they
stuck the bottle in her vagina.
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The room was just, when I walked in, it was
just bloody, blood all over the place.
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But see, they left and she managed to get
enough strength to make it to the lobby of
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the hotel and sat in a chair there. And it was just soaked, soaked with blood. She almost bled to death.
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Phoebe Judge: Elizabeth Daniel lost four pints
of blood and was burned all over her body
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with cigarette lighters. Newspapers described it as a six hour act
of 'unbelievable brutality.'
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She was in the hospital for five days. Anderson is a small town. The 1980 census put the population just under
28,000 people.
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It's actually gone down since then. And it didn't take long for detectives to
locate the three suspects: Roscoe Brown, Mark
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Vaughn, and Michael Braxton, all in their
20s. Two of the men, Brown and Vaughn were still
in town and very easy to find.
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Michael Braxton had gone to Florida. Carl Anderson: Braxton went to Sarasota, Florida.
00:04:28
And we found out that's where he was going,
we alerted the authorities there. And actually, they had him in custody and
he still had on
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the bloody clothes when he was arrested. And I went to Sarasota, picked him up, and
extradited him back to South Carolina.
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Phoebe Judge: You were driving him? Carl Anderson: I drove. Mm-hmm. I was driving.
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He slept all the way back, slept all the way,
the entire trip. Theo Mitchell: Well, I was contacted by Michael
Braxton's mother.
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Phoebe Judge: This is Theo Mitchell, a former
South Carolina state representative and a
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longtime attorney. He's still practicing today, at age 77. Theo Mitchell: She was a very pleasant lady.
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A very nice lady. A very concerned lady, a mother. Her child was in trouble and she sought to
get assistance for her child.
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And I certainly gave a second thought as to
whether I was going to represent him.
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But there was no question about the fact that
number one, it was stupid. And as such, the way it was done, there's
no excuse.
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There was no excuse, and there still is none
today, for the attack on this young lady who
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almost bled to death, literally almost bled
to death. Phoebe Judge: Theo Mitchell did agree to represent
Michael Braxton.
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The other two defendants had their own attorneys. All three men were deemed mentally competent
and agreed to plead guilty.
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By all accounts, it should have been a straightforward
ending to a very gruesome crime.
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Carl Anderson said it should've been a self-player,
like a self playing piano, but that's not
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what happened. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Theo Mitchell: That was no way shape, form,
or fashion for that have been a trial by a
00:06:47
jury. It was a plea negotiated. Phoebe Judge: Why do you say there's no way
that this could be a jury — was it just
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so clear cut? Theo Mitchell: I think it was very clear cut
that they were participants.
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They were co-conspirators. And it was on the hands of all, under South
Carolina's doctrine.
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And we had searched all of it, there was no
defense. There was no defense. So that story settled on the court's mercy.
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I think a jury would have been much more harsh
than Judge C. Victor Pyle Jr. So we had worked with the solicitor in negotiating
what we thought would be a fair disposition
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of the case. George Duckworth: All right. My name is George Duckworth. I was the 10th Circuit Solicitor back when
this case happened.
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I was the solicitor from 1981 to 2001. The solicitor, most folks don't know what
that is, that's like the District Attorney
00:07:53
in South Carolina. Phoebe Judge: He worked with Theo Mitchell
and the other defense attorneys on the terms
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of the plea. George Duckworth: All three of them ended
up pleading guilty. And the judge that took the guilty plea asked
for a pre-sentence report.
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And then Judge Pyle was a separate judge who
actually did the sentencing. And it was, I mean, nobody really expected
that sentence.
00:08:21
I mean, we weren't prepared for that sentence. Phoebe Judge: Here's what happened.
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First, Judge Pyle told the court it was the
worst rape case he'd ever seen. And then, he gave the men a choice.
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They could serve 30 years in prison — that
was the maximum at the time — or spend no
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time in prison, and undergo surgical castration. George Duckworth: There was just dead silence
in the courtroom for a moment when he handed
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that down. And I think a lot of people looked at each
other, wondering if they'd heard it right.
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But then after a short time of silence — and
there was a lot of talking, going back and
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forth, then, a lot of people really surprised
at the sentence. Phoebe Judge: Were you surprised?
00:09:11
George Duckworth: I was not totally surprised
because I had talked with the judge earlier
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and he'd read the pre-sentence report. And I didn't know the judge that well, it's
the first time we'd had him.
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And I asked him if he'd decided on a sentence
yet for the people. And he mentioned then that he thought about
castration, and I didn't say anything else.
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I didn't know what to think of it. I thought he was kidding at that time, but
when I heard it in the courtroom, I knew he
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was not kidding. Phoebe Judge: Have you ever been in a courtroom
where you've had such an odd choice given,
00:09:50
anything odder than that? George Duckworth: [Chuckles.] No, I don't think so. No.
00:09:55
But Theo Mitchell was probably the first one
to say something. He jumped up and objected to the sentence
and said it was unconstitutional and he probably
00:10:04
remembers better than I do about that. Theo Mitchell: We all were shocked. Phoebe Judge: Theo Mitchell.
00:10:09
Theo Mitchell: [Laughing.] Castration or 30 years, it's to that extent. Looked at him and said, "Your Honor?"
00:10:19
Phoebe Judge: Had you ever heard anything
like that before? Theo Mitchell: No, that was the first one
I'd ever heard.
00:10:26
[Laughs.] It was a shocker. And I said, "My God." He said, "That's my sentence."
00:10:35
He said, "Bailiff, take them away." Phoebe Judge: Do you remember what Braxton
said to you after the word 'castration' was
00:10:44
used? What his initial reaction was? Theo Mitchell: He looked at me. I was a little shorter than he.
00:10:50
He looked at me, he said, "Castration?" And I said, "Yeah, that's what he said. That's what he said, the judge."
00:11:01
If I'm not mistaken, I said, "Judge, you can't
do that." [Laughs.] Braxton questioned me, I questioned the judge,
the judge said, "That's my sentence."
00:11:11
And he banged the gavel. Once they bang the gavel, that's it. Shut up, and get out.
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Phoebe Judge: Or they'll take you away. Theo Mitchell: That's right. Nancy Jo Thomason: So in 1983, I would have
been in the 9th grade.
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Phoebe Judge: This is Nancy Jo Thomason. Her father, Glenn Thomason, represented defendant
Mark Vaughn.
00:11:32
Her father has since passed away, and Nancy
Jo has taken over his law practice in Anderson.
00:11:37
Nancy Jo Thomason: But I knew something had
happened when he was on the six o'clock news
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that night, and came home. "Let's turn on the news, Dad's on the news." And then the phone started ringing.
00:11:49
And the vision that I have, the visual every
time I think about this, is the phone on the
00:11:55
wall in the kitchen. Getting up frequently to answer the phone. And it was ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, The
New York Times.
00:12:07
And I thought that something had happened
and my dad had become a superstar of sorts.
00:12:12
I mean, I just remember being amazed at this
media attention because it had never happened
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before. And so I did quickly come to understand what
was going on in the case, talked to my dad
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about it. "What's going on? Why is this? What does 'castration' mean? You know, what does that even mean?"
00:12:31
Phoebe Judge: Nancy Jo's father, along with
Theo Mitchell and the other defense attorneys,
00:12:36
immediately began an appeals process. Her father told The New York Times, "What
Judge Pyle is advocating here is physical
00:12:44
mutilation of the men. No court can stand for that." Nancy Jo Thomason: And so the next step in
the process was waiting for the South Carolina
00:12:53
Supreme Court to hear the case. Phoebe Judge: Initially, there was some confusion
about what surgical castration entailed.
00:13:02
Some said it would make it impossible for
the men to ever have sex again, and praised
00:13:06
the judge for handing down a biblical sort
of punishment, an eye-for-an-eye situation.
00:13:12
But the surgery does not necessarily prevent
a person from having sex. It diminishes sex drive, due to a significant
reduction in testosterone.
00:13:22
It also prevents a man from getting a woman
pregnant. Defendant Roscoe Brown told reporters, "It
comes down to 30 years in jail, or the rest
00:13:30
of your life without children." The criticism was widespread. The president of the National Organization
for Women called the sentence barbaric and
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said, "It reinforces the notion that rape
is a sexual act and not an act of violence."
00:13:48
Others were concerned that the castration
option just wasn't enough, it let the men
00:13:52
off the hook and back out into the world. We made several attempts to talk with Judge
Pyle for this story, but he declined.
00:14:00
Nancy Jo Thomason: I don't think he likes
to talk about the case very much. But, I remember a lot of the controversy of
the time, a lot of the things that I was reading
00:14:12
in the newspaper articles that were being
written about it, the magazine articles that
00:14:17
were being written about it, the things I
saw on TV, was that there was this argument
00:14:22
or this idea: Was this rape an issue of sex? Or was this rape an issue of violence?
00:14:32
And if you took away the urge for the sexual
desire in a man, would you take away the urge
00:14:39
for the violence? And was there a way that you could prevent
someone from potentially being harmful to
00:14:47
somebody else in the future without having
to just lock them up and throw away the key?
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I remember those being the issues or the ideas
that were being thrown around at the time.
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I can't attribute any of those to Judge Pyle. But knowing the type of judge that he is,
and I've had court in front of him many times,
00:15:10
I have to say that I feel certain that it
was well thought out, that it was well-intentioned.
00:15:18
He is not the type of man, lawyer, judge,
just to try to make a name for himself or
00:15:27
showboat or any of those sorts of things. I truly believe that he had some reason to
think that he was doing something innovative,
00:15:37
but in a just way. Phoebe Judge: This was the sentiment expressed
by everyone we talked to.
00:15:45
That Judge Pyle was a fair, good, and thoughtful
judge. Here's solicitor George Duckworth.
00:15:51
George Duckworth: He's an excellent judge. I had him many times after that, and he was
always very good to work with, always did
00:15:59
a good job on his sentencing and everything. And he took his job very seriously.
00:16:03
I think it was just such a horrible crime,
and I don't think he expected them to take
00:16:10
that option. But he thought that was a good way of expressing
how serious he thought the crime was.
00:16:19
Theo Mitchell: I think he was trying to send
a message. Phoebe Judge: And Theo Mitchell.
00:16:23
Theo Mitchell: That these types of crimes
will not be tolerated. He sent a darn good message.
00:16:32
And I think the message was heard by a lot
of people. Phoebe Judge: I don't know if I have a right
to answer this question because I'm a woman,
00:16:44
but it seems to me that maybe the idea of
castration over 30 years in prison, I mean,
00:16:52
why wouldn't they take castration as an option? 30 years is such a long time. Theo Mitchell: Long time, but one thing about
it is when you deal with the manhood...
00:17:02
Well, let's put it this way, when you deal
with a man's manhood, sometimes pride is something
00:17:10
that you're willing to adhere to, more than
looking at time. [Reflective guitar music.]
00:17:19
Phoebe Judge: As time went on, all three men
eventually tried to drop their appeals and
00:17:26
elect for castration. Roscoe Brown actually submitted what's called
a writ of mandamus, essentially asking the
00:17:33
court to immediately authorize his castration. But by then, it was too late. The case
was already before the State Supreme Court.
00:17:42
And they found Judge Pyle's sentence to be
cruel and unusual punishment. Nancy Jo Thomason: This is the South Carolina
Supreme Court decision.
00:17:50
It was in 1985. "Castration is a form of mutilation and is
prohibited by Article 1, Section 15.
00:18:03
Accordingly, we remand all three cases to
the lower court for resentencing in accordance
00:18:08
with this opinion. Brown's petition for writ of mandamus is denied." [Reflective guitar music.]
00:18:17
Phoebe Judge: Today, some states do have castration
on the books, but it's so-called 'chemical
00:18:26
castration.' In 1996, California became the first state
to approve it. At least eight other states have versions
of chemical castration in their laws as conditions
00:18:36
of parole. Individuals receive monthly injections of
the same hormone women take for birth control,
00:18:43
Depo-Provera, to lower their testosterone
levels. That process is reversed when the injections
stop.
00:18:51
Roscoe Brown, Mark Vaughn, and Michael Braxton
began their 30-year prison sentences.
00:18:57
But because of South Carolina's old parole
guidelines, they were let out early. Very early.
00:19:03
Again, solicitor George Duckworth. George Duckworth: I mean, back then, you could
get a 30-year sentence and you were eligible
00:19:10
for parole in a third of that time. And then you got credit for good time and
that sort of thing.
00:19:16
And as time has gone on, we now have the 85%
rule where you have to do 85% of the sentence,
00:19:22
and then we have life without parole, too. So, you can get a much more severe sentence
now than you could back then.
00:19:29
Phoebe Judge: Did that frustrate you ever,
I wonder, in the job as solicitor, prosecutor,
00:19:34
district attorney, seeing that there were
these crimes going on that really had punishments
00:19:41
that weren't strong enough? And
George Duckworth: Yeah, I saw that a lot. I had a real interesting thing happened to
me, one time.
00:19:48
I was in a restaurant eating and a fellow
came up to me who I had tried and gotten a
00:19:56
life sentence on. And he introduced himself to me. And I said, "I was thinking you got a life
sentence."
00:20:03
He said, "I did, but I've already done my
sentence. And now I'm out." He'd done about eight years on a burglary
that he'd gotten a life sentence on and he
00:20:12
was out. Fortunately, he was a very nice fellow when
he got out. Phoebe Judge: According to Anderson's local
newspaper, the Independent Mail, two of the
00:20:21
assailants, Roscoe Brown and Mark Vaughn,
"went on to lead lawful lives." But the third, Michael Braxton, had been permitted
to finish his parole in Tennessee.
00:20:33
And just two years after they'd let him out,
he was convicted of raping another woman.
00:20:38
For the last 20 years, he's been serving his
sentence for that crime in Tennessee.
00:20:43
Nancy Jo Thomason: The way that this all came
back to the surface is, about two or three
00:20:50
months ago, I got a phone call from one of
the reporters from the local Anderson Independent
00:20:56
newspaper. And he says, "Nancy Jo, do you remember that
case your dad had about 30 years ago, about
00:21:02
that castration case?" And I said, "Of course I do. I was all over that." And he started asking me questions.
00:21:09
I said, "Why on earth do you care about this
case now? What on earth could possibly be happening
with this case now?"
00:21:15
And he said, "Well, one of the guys that was
convicted is coming back to court for something.
00:21:24
He's got a bond hearing." And I said, "What are you talking about?" And he said, "I'm not real sure yet, but there's
a bond hearing on Monday."
00:21:31
So I went to the courthouse on Monday to try
to figure out what was happening. And 20 years ago, South Carolina Triple P
— Probation, Pardon and Parole — gets
00:21:40
notice that he's been — that their parolee
has been arrested in another state, so they
00:21:45
issue a parole violation warrant for him. So there's been this warrant for his arrest
for violating his parole for 20 years, sitting
00:21:55
in a drawer somewhere, waiting to be executed. So he finishes his sentence in Tennessee.
00:22:03
He's getting ready to be released in Tennessee,
they have a hold on him that says he now needs
00:22:08
to go to South Carolina. So he gets brought to South Carolina, they
bring him to the Anderson County Jail.
00:22:13
And now he has to answer for violating his
parole, which, obviously, committing another
00:22:17
crime at all, but certainly committing another
rape, is a violation of the parole that he
00:22:22
had here. Phoebe Judge: On January 20th of this year,
the parole board voted unanimously to revoke
00:22:29
the original parole Braxton was given after
the rape of Elizabeth Daniel in 1983.
00:22:35
Elizabeth Daniel passed away in 2010. Nancy Jo Thomason: He's starting the second
half of his sentence now, more than 30 years
00:22:43
after the original sentence. If he had done the entire time, he'd be out
of prison by now.
00:22:51
So that's, to me, the interesting piece of
the case is that, here we are, 30 years later
00:22:57
with him starting over, finishing the sentence
that he was given way back when. George Duckworth: It's not unusual at all
that his parole was revoked.
00:23:06
Phoebe Judge: But even 20 years after the
fact? George Duckworth: Yeah, even 20 years after
the fact.
00:23:12
Phoebe Judge: George Duckworth. George Duckworth: This guy has shown that
he cannot live in society.
00:23:20
That if he gets out, he's going to do it again. I mean, he's already done it twice, you'd
think he would have learned his lesson after
00:23:27
the first time. Phoebe Judge: Michael Braxton is now incarcerated
at Kershaw Correctional Institution in Kershaw,
00:23:35
South Carolina. His scheduled release is May 10th, 2021. We sent him a letter, but haven't heard back.
00:23:44
Just a few weeks ago, an Alabama state representative,
Steve Hurst proposed a bill that would require
00:23:51
surgical castration for sex offenders who'd
committed offenses against children under
00:23:57
the age of 12. They'd also have to pay for the surgery themselves. [Shimmery, intense music.]
00:24:10
Criminal is produced by Lauren Spohrer and
me. Audio mix by Rob Byers. Special thanks to Alice Wilder and Chelsea
Korynta.
00:24:19
Julienne Alexander makes original art for
each episode of Criminal, you can see it at
00:24:24
thisiscriminal.com. We're on Facebook and Twitter @CriminalShow. Criminal is recorded in the studios of North
Carolina Public Radio, WUNC.
00:24:34
We're a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX,
a collective of the 13 best podcasts around.
00:24:42
Shows like The Allusionist, Song Exploder,
and The Heart. The Heart has a new series out called "Ghost."
00:24:49
It's a collection of stories and essays about
what love leaves behind. Speaker, from The Heart: Someone once said
to me, memories are like tapes playing on
00:24:58
a loop over and over in your head. Click, press play, pause, rewind. The hum barely heard beneath the noise of
our everyday, but every time I press play,
00:25:12
the tape seems to have warped, or maybe I
have. It's like being visited by a ghost, a ghost
from your past.
00:25:26
Phoebe Judge: Go listen. Radiotopia from PRX is supported by the Knight
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00:25:33
Celebrating creativity, chaos and teamwork. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Jingle: Radiotopia.
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